Tory MP Douglas Carswell âpunishedâ for damning army kit
Jonathan Calvert and Andy Rowell
A Conservative MP has been thrown off a parliamentary body after speaking up for Britainâs âpoorly equippedâ troops in Afghanistan.

Douglas Carswell, MP for Harwich and Clacton, was excluded from the armed forces parliamentary scheme (AFPS) earlier this year for making outspoken attacks on the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and arms contractors following a trip to Kandahar as part of the scheme.

He revealed in parliament that troops are left without air cover because of inadequate helicopters. Carswell said the parliamentary scheme, which is financed by defence contractors and uses MoD resources, had attempted to censor him but he refused to be silenced.

At the time I, like many others on this site and elsewhere, questioned the wisdom of leasing - it was fcuking barking and also limited IIRC our use to paved surfaces etc. Unbelievable. Perhaps Brown can do the decent thing, admit he was wrong and compensate the MoD's Â£500 million loss? (Although I would accept him falling on a very blunt and rusty sword) I suppose that really would open a can of worms given what has been squandered due to the treasury's supposed thrift. Cnuts.

Edited to add:

Reminds me of the Air Tanker thing. When we leased the C17 the argument was along the lines of not needing them for very long etc. Now we have some fcucked PFI for replacement tankers that will see them doing charter work 'when they are'nt needed by us.' Does anyone foresee that firstly we will need them an awful lot (if not tanking then on the Afghan pax run) and there won't be a spare minute. Secondly in the contract will be some small print that MoD fail to see or ignore stating:

'Each a/c will be available for charter for a minimum of xx xxxx hours per year; if this is not acheived then the MoD will compensate Theiveing Bastewards PLC at the rate of Â£xxx xxx per hour lost; in addition, any unscheduled use outside of the 30 day agreed notice period will incur a further Â£xx xxx penalty.'

All supposition of course (like many peoples opposition to leasing C17...) but I am certain of one thing, MoD will get themselves shafted again.

Does this mean that not all politicians are scum? Well done that man (MP Douglas Carswell).

TBH though, the British army looks far better equipped on recent vids than it was in 2002. The infantry seem to have access to far more snipers, relatively heavy weapons and body armour etc. than in 2002. Am I wrong?

Same thing is happening in all areas of government expenditure. The Royal Navy's coastal patrol craft are leased under a PFI scheme. The owners wont let them operate in the Gulf. Hence Mr Bean & Co got their iPods nicked after farting about in a rubber inflatable too far from their frigate.

Same with schools. I know a bloke who is a governor. His school is being replaced by a new one built under PFI. Over 20 years, they'll have to pay rent equal to 3 times the cost of building the school. Then they'll have to buy the school all over again when the lease expires.

The only reason for doing this is to keep vast sums off of the government's borrowing figures. The PFI wheeze was thought up by Ed Balls and it allows Gordon to spin our already catastrophic government debt figures.

Not sure Ed Balls anticipated the credit crunch when the PFI wheeze came to mind. The massive training contract is now under threat due to the changed credit situation. Looks like the knives are out for Darling with the hot favourite Balls to replace him. How ironic if the PFI debacle starts to unravel under Chancellor Balls.

It will get worse with the credit crunch, and I fully beleive the tories will run the status quo when elected and blame liabor for the mess the mod is in.
when will the politicians sort the mod out it is basically incompetent at least at the top any way, a 10 yr old could grasp how not to get ripped off when aquiring kit, but then again I wonder what these companies are offering as sweetners?
pillocks the lot of them.

Not sure Ed Balls anticipated the credit crunch when the PFI wheeze came to mind. The massive training contract is now under threat due to the changed credit situation. Looks like the knives are out for Darling with the hot favourite Balls to replace him. How ironic if the PFI debacle starts to unravel under Chancellor Balls.

The very thought has just cheered me up...

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Its going to trash public finance, like a bag charge in the back of the SQMS wagon on a rolling replen...

Welcome to the economic miracle that will make Zim look like a 1st world nation.

A lot of the deals done through PFI are basically corrupt, no doubt there will be an audit trail leading to members of the labour party somewhere along the line.

If thats the case, a major investigation by the serious fraud office can maybe expose a few things enabling the death knell of PFI, cancelation of contracts and massive fines imposed on those concerned.

Procurement needs to be reorganised from top to bottom.

Mind you, the Tories are the same basic type as new labour with one or two honorable exceptions.